Residency Artist - Visual Arts

Patty Mitchell

136 North Congress Street
Athens, OH  45701
Phone: (740) 590-8512
Email: patty@artxi.org

I like making things out of repurposed materials. Prom dresses turn into giant puppets, pants into murals, plastic bottles into parade floats. Seeing objects transform into something unexpected is fun, encourages new ideas and problem solving. Often a combination of photography, sewing, paper mache, wood working, balloons, drawing and painting is involved with projects. One residency we photographed participants eyes, enlarged them to 10" wide and sewed them onto wearable giant fabric puppets. Another we enlarged drawings of flowers and projected them onto old curtains. We followed the line of the original drawing with black paint and then filled in the 6' flowers with colored/painted fabric, beads and sparkly things. I particularly like working with people who have developmental differences and involving other community members in building outrageous over the top art spectacles.

My intention is to give myself permission to investigate anything that feels interesting. What if I make a postcard out of fabric and paper and send it to someone I haven't seen in a really long time....what might happen? What if I paint my refrigerator? What if is really exciting and seeing where it takes you can only happen if you act! Making art is making decisions and I have decided to explore and encourage others to jump in too.

When I was in the sixth grade an artist in residence came to our classroom, we photographed on the playground and developed the film in school. Then and there I decided to become a photographer and now have a MFA and BFA in fine art photography. Working through the arts and addressing community challenges is really attractive: turning an unrented storefront into a community studio, using recycled material to build an over-the-top parade float, rethinking employment opportunities/day programming for people with developmental differences...So much is possible through collaboration, investigation and problem solving through the arts!